Penelope Cruz had really made it. Previously, she'd only been one of the most famous actresses in the world. Aside from her cinematic output, she'd stared down from Ralph Lauren posters everywhere, and there was the small matter of a relationship with Tom Cruise, at the time daily tabloid fodder following his split from Nicole Kidman.
Unfortunately for Cruz, everyone knew who she was, but few knew what she did. Her huge success in Europe, where she'd appeared in two movies awarded Oscars as Best Foreign Language film and a slew of other notable productions, had passed most people by. To them, she was simply Cruise's latest glamorous squeeze. However, she kept on and, after her split from Cruise in 2004 would, with Volver two years later, become the first Spaniard to be Oscar-nominated as Best Actress in a foreign language film. When she won the Oscar in 2009, for Vicky Cristina Barcelona, she would have proven herself in two different languages. Respect was finally due.
She was born Penelope Cruz Sanchez in Madrid on the 28th of April, 1974, her first name being inspired by a song by Joan Manuel Serrat. Her father Eduardo was a retailer, her mother, Encarna, a hairdresser, the family living in the working-class suburb of Alcobendas, about five kilometres north of Madrid. She has one younger sister, Monica, a professional flamenco dancer and TV star (she'd break through in Un Paso Adelante in 2002), and one brother, also younger, named after his father. Penelope was a natural performer, mimicking TV ads as soon as she could walk but, from the age of 4, it was dance that captured her imagination and dominated her life.
She spent 9 years studying classical dance at Spain's National Conservatory, including three years of ballet with Angela Garrido, and a period of jazz dance with Raul Caballero. There were also four years of courses with Cristina Rota in New York City. Dropping out of secondary education early, at 15 she beat off the 300-strong competition at an agency audition and became a part-time fashion model. Pursuing drama studies in Madrid, she also appeared in music videos, one being for the popular band Mecano with whose singer, Nacho Cano, she'd have a relationship till 1996.
National fame arrived at 16 when she began to present Kids' TV programmes on Tele 5. There also arrived her first breakdown. Having studied feverishly throughout her pre-pubescence and teens, then stepped straight into pressurised work, she had over-extended herself and, having to take a break to recover from over-exhaustion, paid the penalty. This would happen again, once worldwide fame was beckoning.
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